We would like to thank those of you who participated in our initial round of testing Bizmanualz On-Line.

Bizmanualz On-line is a software service in which quality professionals, departments heads and managers can review, approve and release controlled documentation as required by ISO and other compliance standards.

Recently Bizmanualz issued free trial and test instances of the Editor module.    On Monday, August 16^th, Bizmanualz will release the Bizmanualz On-line Reader module, a companion web site which automatically displays and organizes all documents released by the Editor module.

Starting Monday, log-in will occur through the Reader module. If you are currently testing the software, you will receive an email with your new link. Your old deep-link will still get you into the editor module. After Monday, we recommend that all users log in using the new link and discard their old link.

Within the reader module, editors will be required to click on an “editor module” button to get into the work flow features that they are currently using. JAVA will load as it has been doing when entering the editor module. The reader module on the other hand does not require JAVA.

Additional Release notes:

A. Only released documents appear in the reader module.
To release documents, click on the editor button in the reader module and use the work flow features.
Test software comes loaded with sample procedures and user help files. Only help files are “released” and therefore appear in the reader module. Any documents released through the Editor module will show up in their respective folders.

B. All readers and editors must have a user name and password.
To create or edit user name and password: Go to the Admin > User tab in the editor module. Enter all the required information.  Select reader and/or editor privileges when you add a user.
Current users will not have to reset their user names or passwords.
Right now as we test the software, editors will have to supply their user name and password a second time to move from the reader module to the editor module. Only one-log-in will be required of editors in the next release.

C. Single point of entry
By having editors log in through the reader module, we are providing a single point for all users to log-in. Sending editors through the reader module will give them easy access to the same view that all employees see, providing editors with an easy way to see what has been released and to see exactly what non-editor (readers) see. We will provide short-cuts to help editors move between the modules in the next release.

D. Your account will NOT lose data as a result of this transition.

E. Unlimited number of users
For now, we have removed the cap on the number of users you may create.
Go to Admin > Users and click the ‘add’ button in the editor module. Add as many users as you want.
When we begin charging for the software, a large but not unlimited number of authenticated readers will be able to log on, even at the introductory price point.

F. Two user-help documents are affected. The log-in instructions have been updated to reflect the new log-in procedure via the reader module. Also, a new use-case has been added that shows basic operation of the reader module. 

New reader module home screen.

G. System will be unavailable Aug 14-15th. You may not be able to log in during the transition while we make the changes described above. Most of the changes will occur over the weekend (August 14-15). Help files will be updated in all existing instances on Monday August 16, 2010. All service will be restored by Tuesday.

H. Response time has improved. As mentioned in a previous release note, we moved the test server you are using to an off-site SAS 70 Type II compliant location. Response time has been greatly improved. Please let us know how fast the server is working for you.

Thank you again for your assistance and feedback as we move this product to market.

We will contact all existing users after the transition for a walk-through and to gather your impressions of the software and the new reader module. Free accounts are issued so that we can gain your input. We reserve the right to cancel your access if we cannot get your feedback. 

Pleaes let us know if you have questions or additional comments.

sales@bizmanualz.com

The “Bizmanualz On-Line” Policies and Procedures management software system is now undergoing testing. When you try it, you’ll see it’s primarily an Internet-based application. Very little runs on your local PC or network.

A few people have wondered about working online, asking, “Why would I want an online policy application that Bizmanualz hosts and maintains, rather than a policy application installed locally?”

#1 - It Costs Less

The Bizmanualz online solution spreads the cost of hardware and software across many customers, so you receive one low monthly fee for editors/authors and nothing for read-only access. If your company wants its own policy server, it wouldn’t enjoy the cost-sharing advantages and it would incur the entire cost of purchasing and maintaining the needed infrastructure.

Some still insist on an in-house installation because it gives them greater control. However, the business world, in general, is moving away from local software and toward hosted software services, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and cloud solutions.  Companies don’t want to pay for software and hardware, especially when it sits idle much of the time. The great thing about software-as-a-service is that pricing reflects what you actually use.

#2 - You Get a Policy Management Solution Now

In large organizations, defining policty management application requirements and allocating resources to buy or build are fraught with political obstacles. Gaining buy-in from all stakeholders takes time. It’s easier for stakeholders to agree on what they need from a policy management software application when they can try it out first.

Because SaaS policy management solutions can be turned on instantly and require no installation, they offer an immediate solution. Users can then define their needs in terms of what the SaaS policy management solutions solutions does or does not do.  You can then offer cost-benefit trade-offs in response to specific user needs.

Meeting user needs is not always possible at an acceptable level of investment. But by establishing good communications with your SaaS policy management solutions vendor, you may better understand the trade-offs and even influence the vendor’s development plans. As the polciy manager who uses the system, it’s easier for you to get a vendor to add the exact policy management features you need than for your company to allocate scarce resources. Under a SaaS model, new policy software features and upgrades are part of the value delivered for your subscription fee.

#3 - Continual SaaS Upgrades and Improvements

While large organizations have business analysts collecting user needs and defining what a policy management software application should do for them, smaller companies often do not. Often that role in an SMB is filled on an as-needed basis by an IT manager, and conflicting priorities may require redeployment of resources right after the software launches.

Software-as-a-service vendors on the other hand live or die by how well they support and improve their product. They must deliver value and ever-improved features and performance in exchange so that customers feel good about their monthly subscription fees.

Under the licensed server approach, improvements often come in annual or longer installation cycles with renewal fees attached. It could be a year or longer before you get upgrades. Furthermore, the cost of upgrading often means putting it off, which means you could fall behind companies that can afford to upgrade. Under the SaaS model, you get upgrades continually and you don’t pay any more for them.

#4 - No Unnecessary Technology Investment

For many companies, installed policy servers just don’t make sense anymore. Big, expensive server hardware and software has to be in place to run your policy procedure management software, but the necessary platform is underused. That is, policy management as a category of software demands little in the way of computing power. Unless yours is a vast organization with intensive policy compliance needs, your investment would sit idle most of the time and you’d end up paying for power you didn’t need.

It makes sense to spread the fixed costs across many companies, and get someone else (Bizmanualz) to take care of all that computing power for you, and that is the advantage of SaaS policy management.

#5 - SaaS Monthly Fees are Cheaper and Easier to Budget

Under a dedicated-server approach, IT departments typically pay annual license and maintenance fees of about 20% to 40% of the up-front software license fees. So our SaaS (on-line) policy solution is actually much cheaper to maintain from IT’s perspective. And because Bizmanualz online fully supports the SaaS solution, your IT department doesn’t have to allocate technical time and talent to maintain a dedicated solution.

SaaS enables you to share most of the costs of the hardware and software across all the provider’s (Bizmanualz’s) customers, while protecting your data. As a matter of fact, policy managers and finance professionals (to name two) who use our policy software are commonly surprised when they approach their IT department heads and find that initiatives are underway to identify SaaS or cloud applications like the Bizmanualz policy management system.

Remote hosting is becoming more common. If you approach IT management with a SaaS option, they may consider you to be a real forward-thinking user!

#6 - Compliance with SAS 70 Type II

Some companies like SaaS as a concept but they don’t want their data to reside outside their firewall. Our hosting is fully compliant and audited to SAS 70 Type II standards. Conforming to Type II standards means your data are fully protected. Has your in-house IT department met the SAS 70 standard?

#7 - Polciy workflow Compliance for editors but users don’t have to do anything differently.

While it is true that draft policy and procedure files are stored on our secure server outside your firewall, your company can store “released” documents on your in-house server. In that way, you could use our workflow management tools and still publish the released files to a location behind your firewall. Authors and editors gain policy workflow and compliance tools, and the majority of employees don’t have to change the way they access released documents. They would simply read the released policy documents as they have been doing in your Intranet or SharePoint, and released documents would reside within your firewall.

Our editing module stores Bizmanualz policies and procedures templates, as well as any changes you make or any other documents that you upload. Most customers tell us that their compliance policies and procedures are not considered sensitive documents. There should be no reason to upload sensitive documents. For most customers, released files are published to a secure web site that your employees - or anyone you want - can access them.

With the trade-offs in mind, the online SaaS policy management approach works for most customers. Furthermore, we can customize a solution for you. Just email sales@bizmanualz.com. Sign up for a free trial and see for yourself.

Customers Say They Want A System for Sharing their Day-to-Day Operating Documents while Maintaining Control, Traceability and Compliance

Our customers cite ‘organizational improvement’ as their main reason why they purchase policies and procedures. From many conversations we have gleaned that customers want to implement a system for continuous improvement and compliance. In a system, procedures are continuously reviewed, revised, and updated. New issues need to be identified, now procedures written. Old procedures need to be replaced by new procedures.

To remain compliant with your industry standards, government regulations, and quality requirements such as ISO, document changes must be managed and traceable through the document management cycle: DRAFT | REVIEW | APPROVE | RELEASE. This cycle is the heart of compliant document work flow.

So Bizmanualz is currently testing an on-line document management software for driving document management and compliance. Because the software is available as an on-line service, organizations of any size can manage and share their policies, procedures, work instructions and other operating documents.

During this test period, Bizmanualz is providing a few customers with access to a prototype of our new document management software. The customers are providing feedback which is helping us improve the first release of the product which will take place soon (If you are interested in testing the software, please read this post. Also, see our frequently asked questions (FAQ), or call us at (314) 863-5079.)

For more background on how document management software can help you, please see our blog.

Walking Through Bizmanualz On-Line

In our pre-release testing program, we’re asking testers to perform common operations, such as logging in, setting up users (assigning permissions, etc.), loading documents, and organizing them. The work flow starts with drafting documents and includes reviewing, revising, approving, and releasing documents.

The following “use case” illustrates work flow in our new software. Use cases like this are provided to testers so that all testers are following a similar path, which makes it easier to evaluate their responses. As the software matures, users will need less instruction and use-cases will be more general.

To log in to the Bizmanualz On-line editing module, click on a link and enter a user name and a password that you received via e-mail. When logged in, users will see the following ‘Home’ Screen (figure 1), which shows announcements posted by the administrator and other users of the system.

Figure 1: Click screen shots for larger images.

To manage a document, click on the document tab (figure 2), which is the second tab from the left. Then click on the production department folder in the left-hand navigation to show production-department documents (Bizmanualz templates that you purchase come pre-loaded and you can upload your own documents).

Figure 2

Expand the folders by clicking on the plus sign in the Department navigation on the left-hand side (figure 2) to show its contents and browse for documents in the list in the main window (figure 3).

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

The document itself may be viewed from this window by clicking on the binoculars icon, or edited by clicking on the document-edit icon. Delete the document by clicking on the delete icon, which will issue a warning before deleting the document.

Managing Document Workflow

Workflow in the Bizmanualz On-line system is essentially a three-stage process of accept/reject review, approve/reject revision, and release/obsolete revision. We will look at the basics of each step here.

This guide assumes that you have created users, and set permissions at a department level. See those use cases for full information.

Set up Document Permissions

Here we will review the optional step of setting permissions at the document level, which override department-level permissions governing access to a group of documents.

System administrators can set all permissions for themselves and all users. They can submit drafts (DRAFT), accept or reject reviews (REVIEW), approve or reject revisions (APPROVE), and release documents (RELEASE).  This cycle—Draft | Review | Approve | Release—is consistent with all document management protocols, industry standards, government regulations and quality standards.

By default, authors cannot review or release their own work. But administrators can change work flow permissions and defaults for single documents in the People tab (figure 6), overriding department or group-level permissions. If you are logged in as an administrator, you will have access to the People tab while you are on the Details view of any document.

Figure 6

In this example, the administrator has granted himself full permissions, and another employee Approver and Reviewer permissions, overriding permission defaults.

Accepting and Rejecting Reviews

Dan has permissions as an author, which means that he can ‘Submit draft’, which causes the ‘Accept Review’ and ‘Reject Review’ buttons to light up (figure 7) per the permissions he set in the previous screen.

Figure 7

E-mail Notification

Reviewers are notified by e-mail when documents are ready for them to review. E-mails are sent when the document has to be submitted for review. All users who have review privileges for the document will receive an email (Figure 8).

The document may be attached to the e-mail so you can read it right away. But documents can only be released through the system. Any revisions you make to the attachment will not be reflected in the controlled draft or released document unless you upload it to the system.  If you do that, it will cause another work flow cycle to occur on the document you have uploaded. To avoid proliferation of documents, we suggest using the attachment for reference only doing all your revisions while logged into the system.

Figure 8

In this example, the revision number is still 0.0.0.0 because the document review has not yet been accepted. Clicking on the ‘Accept Review’ button which is lit up in figure 7, will create a document revision.

If you ‘reject draft’ you get a message that prompts you to enter a reason (figure 9).

Figure 9

Approving and Rejecting Revisions

Ultimately, revisions can be released by clicking the ‘release revision’ button (figure 10). You will only be able to release the document if you have permission to do so, per the settings on the ‘People’ tab. Talk to the document author or system administrator to find out what permissions you have.

Figure 10

When you click ‘release’ you will be asked if you would like to send the document via  FTP to a server other than the Bizmanualz server (figure 11). Select ‘yes’ if you are pushing released documents to SharePoint or another local server other than Bimanualz. If you are not sure, ask your administrator or Bizmanualz.

Figure 11

When you release a document for the first time, the version number changes to 1.0.0.0, indicating that the first release of the document has been achieved (figure 12). Note that many reviews may have occurred before e the first release.

Figure 12

Unreleased documents cannot be seen by the general user population. They will only see what you released to your customized Bizmanualz web site or to your SharePoint or Intranet. Only users of the Bizmanualz On-line editing module can see the drafts.

So, what do you think? Are you ready for Bizmanualz document management software?

In the Lean Business System group on Linked In this month, Paul Lowe of Brush Transformers Ltd., Nottingham, UK, asked, “Do SOPs hinder creative thinking which can ultimately stifle innovation?” The short answer is “No.” Standard work, creative thinking, and innovation are three separate concepts, all necessary in any healthy organization. Let’s look at how they relate to one another in an example at Bizmanualz:

Sometimes customers call Bizmanualz inquiring about our policies and procedures for sale, saying that their companies need documentation to increase their quality and gain compliance. Of course, we’re able to provide them with policy and procedure templates. We also suggest that quality is the result of teams working out the best way to do something, and quality is supported by documentation. Sometimes we hear, “We don’t have time to develop our own processes or documentation.” So, they start their project with our templates and we make it a point to check back with them later.

Focus on a small number of SOP’s. If it seems that your teams don’t have time to develop or even customize SOPs, they’re probably trying to document way too much. Only the work that repeats and is subject to continual improvement benefits from standardized documentation. Work groups can be overwhelmed by more than a handful of SOPs; anything more than that will be referenced rarely, if ever.

Developing SOP’s is creative. Developing SOP’s requires a clear sense of what activity is essential and what is nonessential, or “non-value added”.  With that understanding, you can create a focused procedure. Improving an SOP is also creative, in that a refinement must be conceived that drives out even more nonessential activity. The revision has to be drafted, reviewed, and released. It’s an iterative, creative process.

Process improvement will buy you incremental improvement. You might pass along single-digit cost reductions to your customers, or response times might improve by double-digit percentages. But even if your customers love every improvement, incremental approaches will only get you so far when customer’s expectations fundamentally change.

When your competitor delivers in seconds what takes you days, or sells for $100 when the going price is $1,000, the customer’s expectations shift and the rules change.

Like it or not, game-changing innovation must be on your agenda. Incremental improvements won’t get you there. So don’t confuse creativity applied to incremental improvement with innovation, another form of creativity entirely.

At Bizmanualz, we’ve applied incremental improvement to our policies and procedures business, improving for years. But now customers want tools to manage their SOP’s, policies and procedures. So we had to innovate and find a way to deliver what customers want.

Focus your innovation by asking your customers why they buy your products

We focused our innovation by asking our customers why they purchased our policies and procedures. As mentioned earlier, one reason is that they don’t have time to develop their own. But more often customers cite organizational improvement as their main reason. From many conversations we have gleaned that customers want to implement a system for continuous improvement and compliance.

Policies and procedures documents, per se, are not a system of continuous improvement. In a system, procedures are continuously reviewed, revised, and updated. New issues need to be identified, now procedures written. Old procedures need to be replaced by new procedures. With a deeper understanding of our customer’s needs, we came to understand the direction that our innovation must take.

Customer needs bound our innovation

Our customers told us they wanted a system for managing policies and procedures, so Bizmanualz is currently testing an on-line document management software for driving compliance, among other things. Looking carefully at customers’ purchase behavior and listening to what customers have told us has provided important boundaries for our creativity so that resources can be applied effectively. No amount of creativity will compensate for a lack of focus.

Our initial software release focuses on the document management features that will help our customers transform their static policies and procedures into a dynamic management system. For a discussion of features, please see our Bizmasterz web site. Also, see our frequently asked questions (FAQ), or call us at (314) 863-5079.

Incremental improvement helps you do a better job in your current business, but it won’t help you when the rules of the game change and innovation is your only option.  Creativity is a skill that you bring to work every day whether you’re taking small steps of making big leaps.

We are currently testing our new policies and procedures document compliance software, and plan to release it for customer testing in the near future. Potential testers have been asking a number of questions. Here are questions, and the answers:

Is your policy management software accessed as a service over the Internet (Software as a Service - SaaS) or must your policy solution be installed on your computers?

Bizmanualz policy management software is in fact a ‘software-as-a-Service’ available as a subscription over the Internet. The first time a user accesses the service, a small amount of code loads on the client machine in about 30 seconds, similar to when using GoToMeeting or any number of on-line services. The user never is required to install, launch or maintain any software.

Can we upload our existing documents into the system?

You can upload all your existing documents into the system, and open them, so long as your local machine has the software that was used to create the document. For example, MS WORD documents are can be uploaded. In fact, Bizmanualz publishes the world’s most complete set of pre-written policies and procedures, all in MS WORD format. Any policies and procedures template that you buy from us comes pre-loaded in the software. We keep the templates up to date; but we don’t change any documents that you save, upload or change, even if the document started as a Bizmanualz template.

Are documents easy to update?

Documents are edited in their native software on your local machine; they are saved to our server. Our system tracks and controls all document revisions so everyone accesses the latest version. It’s easy to roll back to a previous version if necessary.

Are employees or other users notified when a policy changes or is updated?

Notifications of policy changes are sent by e-mail to policy document authors and ‘followers.’  Administrators and document authors can assign ‘follower’ rights to any user for any document. Users can independently follow any document to which they have permission. Followers receive e-mail notifications of all policy changes. There are also announcement and action item screens within the policy management software that can be used to communicate information about documents.

Can multiple users access policies and procedures at the same time?

Yes, any number of users can access your policy and procedure documents. If two people work on the same document at the same time, their work will be saved (but not released) as two separate drafts. Built-in compliance workflow assures that only one draft can be released, so there are never multiple releases of the same policies and procedures document floating around.

How do you price your policy management software? Do you charge by the seat, or do you sell one license for the whole organization?

We charge per seat for administrative and add/change/delete privileges. Released policy and procedure documents are published to a web site which can be viewed for free by anyone you want. Typically, that would include all your employees and your auditors if you have a formal quality system.

We have an Intranet for reading our documents on-line. How does your software work with Intranets?

If you already have an intranet or a document publishing platform (SharePoint for example) and want to keep using it, our editor module can ftp documents to your existing publishing platform so that user’s viewing habits don’t have to change. But your editors and document managers would benefit from using our editor module for policy and procedure document control, workflow, version control, notifications, etc. while your general employee population would continue to read documents as they’re doing now.

Can I assign different levels of access to users and documents?

We offer a full access control at the document, user and department level. That is, all users assigned to, for example, the accounting department can be granted permission to all accounting procedures with a global command. Additional restrictions can be placed on individuals within a department. Access privileges can also be set at the document level.

Is your policy management software compliant with my quality management or document control requirements?

Yes, the Bizmanualz policy management software is consistent with the document control requirements of all ISO quality management systems, government and industry standards and regulations.

Thanks to those of you who’ve expressed interest in the upcoming beta test of our policies and procedures management software. We’re making adjustments to the system and expect to release it for testing shortly.

We’re still recruiting testers for the new Software as a Service (SaaS) policies and procedures management system. As a beta-tester, you’ll have unlimited access to the system during the test period and you’ll have the option to continue using it once it’s released to the general public.

The SaaS application will be web-based, so no installation is required. You’ll be able to set up other users in the test period so you can share policies and procedures. You’ll see firsthand what a great benefit this is. We plan to charge monthly for a certain number of seats, or licenses.

Your web app will come loaded with a set of Bizmanualz policies and procedures. In addition, potential testers have told us they’d like to upload their own procedures and supporting documents. They say they like the idea of a web-based application, because it leaves in-house technology resources free to support other needs. What would you do with Document Management Policies and Procedures Software?

Test Our Software Now - Get the Features You Want Later

Early testers will help us select from a long list of features planned for development. By participating in the test program, testers are likely to get the features they want sooner.

If you’re interested in taking part in this beta test of the Bizmanualz policy and procedure management system, please call (800-466-9953 or 314-863-5079), e-mail, or leave a message on our web site. Let us know:

Q1: Please provide your full contact information, including your name, company name, work title, address, e-mail, phone number, and website address.

 Q2: How do you currently use policies and procedures?

 Q3: Why are you interested in participating in this test?

 Q4. Today, how do you manage your documents; are you using software, network storage or a manual system? If using software, which software by name are you using? Roughly how many policies, procedures and supporting documents might you wish to manage in a software repository?

 Q5: Is there anything about your current policies and procedures software and/ or processes that you wish you could change or improve?

 Q6. What is the approximate number of employees in your entire organization___, and in your department or component___?

 Q7. How many would need to access the system; how many: Authors?___ Editors?___ Reviewers?___ Browsers/View-only access?___

 Q8: What do you plan to do with policies and procedures in the next 30 to 60 days?

When we get your responses, we’ll contact you to arrange for an introduction to the software. Prefer to answer the above questions in survey form? Click here. We hope to hear from you soon. Thanks for your assistance.

As Chris Anderson wrote recently, document management systems (DMS) give you several advantages right away — security, cost savings, easy retrieval, and compliance.

I’d add a couple more advantages, at least in the short run. When you subscribe to the soon-to-be-released Bizmanualz document management system, it’ll come pre-populated with Bizmanualz policies and procedures.

You could download policies and procedures and load them onto your local computer network (for example, locate them on a local server). But, then the documents are organized in a basic hierarchical format. You have to somehow build in the access and version control; otherwise everybody has access to your documents. They can read, write to, and delete them without your permission or knowledge.

You could send an e-mail to “All”, saying that “Manufacturing procedures are on the ‘M:\’ drive, in the ‘Procedure’ folder. Don’t change anything without telling me.”  That’s going to work, right?

On the other hand, when you use our online document management system, you’ll simply send a link with login information.  Procedures, records, and rights to use or edit them would be managed within the web-based system. Deployment — and control — become very easy.

When you use our online DMS, the information comes pre-loaded, pre-organized, and rights-managed. The documents can’t get lost, and you don’t have to pull your hair out sorting through multiple versions.

Why is a Document Management System better than a Shared Drive?

Storing and sharing records on your local network is like having an electronic file cabinet. While that’s easier in many ways than a paper-based file system — because you can access it remotely (saving you steps) and quickly and you can easily back up your information — it’s not a great leap forward. You haven’t improved the process — you’ve merely replicated it in a different form.

True, as long as you can put your finger on your compliance records — the part of your system that proves your company complies with some standard or regulation — you’ve got one aspect of your business under control. Beyond compliance, though…are those records helping you manage your business? Can you easily tabulate information contained in the records and produce visual charts and graphs, showing you and your colleagues unusual behavior, or trends?

In the “shared-drive scenario”, the best you can do is once in a while collect information, dump it into a spreadsheet, and chart it. But, if you keep your information in an online DMS with reporting capabilities built in, you can generate and view reports in real time, as your coworkers are entering data into the system. And, you decide who has permission to enter data, read reports, and so on.

At Bizmanualz, we share the following sales report real time across the company on our on-line system. Everyone can see how sales are doing, and what the most popular products are. We can see trends as they develop while there is still time to react to them to affect real-time improvements.

At Bizmanualz, we can see trends as they develop while there is still time to react to them to affect real-time improvements.

And, when you want to revise policies and procedures, the DMS not only helps you to organize the development and review processes — it automatically performs version control and minimizes risks (like documents disappearing).

Do You Want to Take Part in a Document Management System”Beta-Test”?

Our developers plan to open up the Bizmanualz Document Management System to organizations like yours. Soon, new customers will access their Bizmanualz policies and procedures online, using the DMS.

Would you like to participate in a beta test of this system?  Please post your comments below or contact us at our web site, and we’ll let you know when you can try our online Document Management System for yourself, before it goes on the market.

Thank you for your help.

We sometimes hear from small business owners who wish to replicate their successful business and expand to one or more new locations. They often say that they “…need someone to come and package up (their) business from head to toe so we can expand.” That’s what they say — but is that what they need?

Most companies that expand successfully do so with a combination of:

• Researching and documenting “best practices“;
• Process documentation, in the form of well-written policies and procedures;
• Customized employee training; and
• Implementing a quality management system (QMS)

so they get consistent results across all operations.

After a few e-mails back and forth between the small business owner and Bizmanualz, the gravity of the situation — their “replication strategy” — becomes apparent. The process of documenting best practices, implementing policies and procedures, training employees, and implementing a quality management system is no small undertaking — any one of them alone would be daunting, let alone all four. While the owner’s first inclination may be to have someone to come in and do it, seldom are they in a position to budget for it.

Nor would it be advisable, in most cases. For most of our customers, existing staff — labor — is the largest cost, by far. When you dig down for what the owner really wants, it’s to enable the current staff to achieve the desired growth without spending more money than they’re already spending on employees and related expenses. Given our customer’s practical concerns, our approach has evolved into guiding and enabling growth, not sending in a “hired gun” to do it for them. We guide growth through training and workshops, and we enable growth with our products and services.

Saving Time with Pre-Written Policies and Procedures

Our pre-written materials save you time by giving you a starting point and a framework. But, in the case of the business owner seeking growth, he’s asking, “Which procedures do I need to customize, why are they important, and once I’ve customized them, how do I know they’re working?” These and other questions are answered in our two-day roll-out training.

In our Implementation training, we help you find the answers you need and help select the right procedures to sustain growth. That way, your staff can build the best-practice procedures you need.

But wait! There’s more! With the training, you get a year’s worth of phone consultations. Once you’ve taken the Implementation training, pick up the phone and ask us anything you want. Contact us, or download a one-page flier about the roll-out training.

The training will show your team how to build — and sustain — a system of best practices for growth. We’ll help you select, modify, and apply our procedure templates to improve your current operations, making it cheaper for you to provide your service to your customers. Not only do you make your operations more effective and more efficient — saving you money and increasing your profits. In this tough economy, you’re better able to answer price challenges from competitors.

Supporting your Growth and Expansion with Software

Our customers have taught us that when their businesses expand geographically, they often face challenges in coordinating, controlling, and distributing their policies, procedures, and best practices among their locations. That’s why Bizmanualz is currently testing a new software platform that will help you handle these challenges. Once this platform is available, you’ll be able to rent access to our software platform and upload your procedures so that when you’re ready to expand, all your locations can access controlled releases of policies and procedures, as well as other key documents.

Furthermore, you’ll pay only for what you need! Billed monthly, our web-based software will be particularly cost-effective for our small-to-medium-sized customers. You’ll get the convenience, control, reporting, and smooth operations that you want, with none of the hassles of maintaining the software in-house. It will come pre-loaded with your Bizmanualz policies and procedures. All you’ll need is an Internet browser.

If you want to help us test our upcoming web-based policies and procedures management software release, please comment below or contact us via the Web. Our job is to help you grow efficiently and with as little risk as possible. Share your growth challenges with us, and we’ll reply with ideas and products to help you.

This week, I responded to an e-mail from a Bizmanualz reader who asked the simple question: How do we get to best practices faster? They wanted to know how best to use our products and services to address feedback from their sales department — that their processes are too long and, therefore, hamper sales. Bizmanualz will engage to whatever extent suits a customer’s need and budget. There are three options to choose from:

1. Buy whatever of our published products that you think you need or that we might recommend;
2. Start with our introductory process optimization services (outlined below); or
3. Buy the CEO series and contact me to buy two days of training to help you get started on your own.

Get coaching and personal service with our process review (option #2). Current pricing is shown in our shopping cart. Contact me for this service:

Review your current process. What are you doing now, and what do you want to improve? Here, we clarify your current work process so that we can measure improvement.

Compare your current process to Bizmanualz best-practice processes. No need to re-create processes when we already have them. We will update your processes to our best practices, saving you the trouble and expense of doing it yourself. Streamlined process maps are simple to understand and easy to implement.

Define the goals of your improvement and provide a roadmap for implementing change. Some example improvement goals:

1. Simplify the process so that they will be used by employees;
2. Increase the number of sales leads from the level identified in the current state; and/or
3. Increase the number of leads converting to sales or other desirable actions, such as signing up for a newsletter, obtaining a sample product, or requesting contact.

When you employ Bizmanualz to lead your improvement project, we customize a process for you from our extensive library of best-practice processes. Best practices are included. This saves you time and money on research and development. Our approach is to identify incremental improvements that involve and can be sustained by your current staff. Improvements are realistic, achievable, and sustainable so they’re achieved consistently and benefits add up fast.

Process Implementation Phase

I’ve described the process review engagement where the scope and pace of improvement is set.  Implementing the improvements is the next phase.

In the follow-on process implementation phase, Bizmanualz processes are delivered in all the formats — with the checklists and forms — that your people will use to follow through and practice the improvement. For the do-it-yourself-er, most of the process map formats and examples discussed here are described in a recent Bizmanualz article and commentary series, starting with “What is a Process Map?“.

A Bizmanualz quality consultant, with supporting quality engineers, writers, and communications professionals, will customize maps, job aids, and other tools for your project.  Read about the types of process maps and other tools we deliver on our site. The do-it-yourself-er can also read about project management tools and use them to manage their own project.

Anyone can comb through our manuals-product web site and select individual policies, procedures, and forms manuals or they can choose collections such as the CEO Company Policies and Procedures set.  Most CEO Series customers will benefit from a day or two of training and review, where we’ll introduce your employees to the books and tools in the CEO series and show them how to get started.

Contact me, Dan Davison, for more information about training to use the CEO series product.  Do you have comments? How can we help? Please write to me directly, or leave your comments below.

Thank you.

You may have noticed that on some of our web pages, Bizmanualz is soliciting your feedback in “Talkback” dialog boxes. On our consulting pages, we invite you to share your “Toughest Process Challenges” and your “Training and Communicating Challenges“.

By prompting you with the right kinds of questions in the right places, we hope to gain a better understanding of your wants and needs and how we can help.  Your responses will help us update our web site so that it better addresses the issues and questions on your mind.

Some of your questions invite engagement — great!  That’s exactly what we’re looking for! We ask only that you limit yourself to one question per web page and give us your name and e-mail address so we can begin a dialogue.  That’s it! You can tell us what you think without leaving the page…even without scrolling.

To date, your input has been instructive and has helped us improve our site. Some of you have continued to correspond with us by e-mail; we plan to add more Talkback dialog boxes on more pages to serve you even better.

Here’s a list of talkback questions and links as of this week (we’ll update the blog with new Talkback links as we add them):

Consulting Services main page:
What is your toughest process challenge?

Procedure review page in the consulting section:
What is your primary documentation difficulty?

Process implementation page in the consulting section:
How do you train and communicate with your team?

Process optimization in the consulting section:
What is your toughest process challenge?

Thank you for sharing what’s on your mind with Bizmanualz.  For those of you who haven’t yet taken part, check out a recent Talkback inquiry on a process training question and our response, taken from case studies.  And, tell your friends and business associates about us!